This application is based on application No. 9-122319 filed in Japan, the contents of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
The present invention relates to information processing apparatus that stores and manages image data.
The field of information processing has recently developed remarkably. In particular, the performance of personal computers and the like has made rapid progress. As a result, there has been widely used, not only for special use in business but also for general use, image database apparatus, electric filing apparatus, and the like that read image data through input devices to store, manage, retrieve, and print.
In such information processing apparatus, the user can output image data input through a digital camera, a scanner, or the like into an output device such as display, printer, or the like to view the images. In this case, it will be preferable for the user, if the images are displayed with decorations. For example, when a family picture taken on Christmas is displayed, the user can much more enjoy it, if the image is output with a decoration featuring reindeer, Christmas tree, and the like. However, in a current information processing apparatus, the user can display the image alone, or display it only within a simple ornamental frame. Therefore, if the user wants to display the image with a decoration image, then the user has to choose such a decoration image to add to the image. This has been tedious work for the user.
Further, when a conventional computer manages the data of documents, images, voices, and the like, the computer manages the data with attribute information such as the size of the data, the date of creation, the name, and the like. Recently, there has been a movement toward managing data with information indicating more detailed contents than these attributes.
For example, concerning image data, a new technology called FlashPix that is aimed at popularizing the edition of image data was recently announced. This technology is a file format of image data jointly developed by Eastman Kodak, Microsoft, Hewlett Packard, and others. According to the specification of this FlashPix format, an image data file has information, called content information hereafter, that describes various contents, together with image data, to facilitate effective management of the image data. For example, the FlashPix format has a class of information called attribute group, to which belongs the file source that describes how the image data has been created, the intellectual property that includes information about ownership and copyright, and the content description hat describes the contents of the image data. The management of image data complying with FlashPix format is expected to be widely used from now on. However, there is currently no information processing apparatus that effectively uses advantages of the FlashPix format in displaying images.
The object of the present invention is therefore to solve the above problems and provide information processing apparatus that, in storing and managing image data, selects decorations suitable for the image data to display the decorations and the images together.
A first information processing apparatus in accordance with the present invention is equipped with an image storage means that stores images and their association with content information, a decoration image storage means that stores decoration images for decoration, an assigning means that assigns an image, a selection means that selects a decoration image depending on the content information, from the decoration images stored in the decoration image storage means, based on the content information associated with the assigned image, and an image output means that outputs the selected decoration image depending on the content information together with the assigned image. The first information processing apparatus automatically selects a decoration image, based on the content information of an image, to output into a display device such as a display and the like, together with the image.
A second information processing apparatus in accordance with the present invention is equipped with an image storage means that stores images and their association with content information, a decoration image storage means that stores decoration images for decoration, an assigning means that assigns an image, a selection means that selects a decoration image depending on the content information, from the decoration images stored in the decoration image storage means, an image composition means that composes a composite image from the assigned image and the selected decoration image depending on the content information, and an image output means that outputs the composite image. The second information processing apparatus automatically selects a decoration image based on the content information of an image and, after incorporating into the image, outputs the composite image into a display device such as a display and a printing device such as a printer.
An information processing method in accordance with the present invention assigns an image, reads content information associated with the assigned image, selects a decoration image for decoration from decoration images stored in a storage means, based on the content information, comprises a composite image from the assigned image and the selected decoration image, and outputs the composite image.
A recording medium in accordance with the present invention records, in a recording medium capable of being read by a computer, a program that assigns an image, reads content information associated with the assigned image, selects a decoration image for decoration stored in the storage means based on the content information, composes a composite image from the assigned image and the selected decoration image, and outputs the composite image. The computer automatically selects an ornamental frame suitable for the image by reading and executing the program stored in the recording medium and, after composing a composite image from the selected ornamental frame and the image, outputs the composite image into a display device or into a printing device.